Episode-3: Cheated death – and gained a second lease of life.

Kishore - A cousin of mine dropped me to the bus stop and left when bus departed at 2245 hrs from Bellary on Friday 6th Jan 2006.

Speeding bus lost its control and to our bad luck Lorry was coming in the opposite direction all this was going on when suddenly front tire of bus got punctured. Bus overturned and hit a pothole and then the median, while trying to avoid collusion with Lorry.

I realized something really went wrong and suddenly the fear of death all starts to hit me.I thought it does gonna be my last day-last night-last min-last moment of my life on the planet. I so desperately wanted to talk to mom, may be my last call but then did not dare to…coz she is much sensitive to take the reality of losing someone she loves the most in the world.The incident took place in city outskirts approx 10 kilometers from Bellary at around 2315 hrs.

When the bus hit the median, its front glasses got crushed into thousand million pieces and were propelled in the entire bus till the other end. Few glass pieces flew on me, luckily not into my eyes coz usually I don’t get sleep while travelling and most of the time I keep my eyes wide open at least I visualize things I see else floods of thoughts pop into my mind. A medium sized suitcase fell down over my head from the luggage rack. It hit so badly that I could hardly open my eyes and a guy sitting next to me got into terrible fear. He gently patted on my shoulder and asked shock looking down toward me “Are you fine?” That was the time I opened my eyes. I nodded barely… I managed to say yes, coz I was in terrible shock, I could hardly speak. All lights in the bus went off.

I thought my skull got fractured.
I asked myself “am I going to get back to the normal lifestyle?”

Driver got critically injured and while in his attempt to take control over the bus his head repeatedly hit the iron grill which is positioned behind driver’s seat. Blood was flooding from his brain and it’s daunting and dangerous and I was praying for his safety. Few helped to tie a cloth to driver’s head and immediately moved him to other bus and took him to the hospital. Luckily none injured as badly as driver got hurt.

Conductor asked everyone to get out of the bus and everyone rose quickly and immediately got out of it with their entire luggage. Luggage got jumbled coz all in horrifying shock and even luggage got misplaced during crash. I was the only left in the bus trying to locate my sandals. I left them down coz there wasn’t adequate leg space in the bus. There is no light in the bus as well. My Nokia 1100 mobile was my life of light.The only mobile which has flashlight facility. All the way I was cursing it coz it doesn’t have FM, Mp3 player, camera. But on that day I was quite content with my phone :). I turned on the flashlight and searching for my sandals. One I found near last but one seat and the other near front door seat. God now I was searching for my bag! Someone took mine by mistake. I just got out of the bus with one orphan bag left in the bus and enquired with couple of my co-passengers. Finally I found mine.
I didn’t know where exactly I was? In the midst of the road - dark night, deep forest, strange people? Oh my god…!

Time in watch showed 2335 hrs. The past 20 mins of my life ah, unforgettable.

Then conductor helped all of us to get into KSRTC buses which were passing by. I got into Dakota (ordinary one).

Finally reached Bangalore by 0705 hrs and koramangala by 0745 hrs. I didn’t have much time to rethink about the incident happened I was quite busy with my studies at Sandeepani. I was pursuing my PG-Diploma in VLSI Design. And course on Digital Systems Design with FPGAs under Proficience Programme at IISC,Bangalore. I had no breathing space just got freshen and rushed to IISC.

I don’t know was that a tragedy or a destiny.

I have learnt that travel accidents are fairly common in this part of the world. I have still got a long way to go :)